Bits and Pieces

[billroper]

K is gradually feeling better. Staying home from school and getting lots of rest seems to have improved things.

I spent the latter part of this evening assembling a small wood chipper. Having gotten estimates of $500 and up for removing some large shrubs, I decided to share the wealth with the family and will be paying the kids to participate in this process. By the time we are done, it will end up costing me nearly $500, but I can be reasonably sure that the job will be done to my satisfaction, the money will go to the kids (who should learn some valuable lessons about work), and I will end up owning a wood chipper.

After I finished work earlier in the day, I went out and created a brush pile from a substantial portion of the overgrown forsythia bush in the side yard as something that Gretchen and the kids can use to christen the wood chipper. I have concluded that Sleeping Beauty's castle must have been surrounded by forsythia bushes from the way that bush has turned into an absolute thicket of branches.

I hope this works...

Comments

[jennlk]

I'm not particularly looking forward to decent weather, because that means that I'll have to go out with my dad's pruning shears and deal with the forsythia "clump". It's made trickier because this particular clump has a few branches that flower in the fall, when the rest of their compatriots are turning purple. I don't want to lose that contrast, but I never think about marking those branches in the fall....

[billroper]

Our forsythia has completely given up flowering, which is one of the reasons that it's coming down. A forsythia with fall flowers sounds absolutely charming.